The Kearney Center, Tallahassee's private, nonprofit homeless shelter, has withdrawn an emergency request for $600,000 from the city amid pressure from other social service agencies.

"We have decided to withdraw our funding request because of opposition from other nonprofits," said Rick Kearney, chairman of the Kearney Center’s parent company, CESC Inc. The millionaire-philanthropist contributed $4 million of his own money to complete construction of the shelter that bears his name.

The shelter already receives $540,000 a year from a city-county partnership with the United Way called Community Human Service Partnership. The shelter requested city and county help covering a $900,000 budget shortfall caused in large part by the Legislature diverting $500,000 that had been approved in committee for the shelter to a school-hardening and gun control bill.

In a letter to the city asking to withdraw the request, Kearney Center Executive Director Monique Ellsworth said it became clear through her research that there was no correct way to ask for support from the city without creating conflicts with other agencies.

Deputy County Administrator Alan Rosenzweig told the center that the CHSP process doesn't have a means to ask for assistance outside the two-year funding cycle, Ellsworth said.

"We have strong partnerships with other nonprofits who help us fulfill this critical service," Ellsworth said. "Therefore, disruption is unhealthy for all involved."

United Partners for Human Services Executive Director Amber Tynan wrote to the UPHS membership that the organization intended to oppose the item "as it includes funding that circumvents the CHSP process."

Ellsworth went on to say in her letter that "this anomaly brings to light a flaw in the process." She asked the city and county "to devise an appropriate mechanism through which funds for critical services can be requested, outside the CHSP process."

Shelter officials said they don't expect any changes for the next two months, and no changes at all in the level of critical services provided to their clients.

"There is an absolute commitment to meeting the critical need. Shelter and food will never stop," spokesman Tom Derzypolski said. "But some of the one-on-one counseling and wrap-around services are what we’ll have to look at."

Contact Schweers at jschweers@tallahassee.com. Follow him on Twitter @jeffschweers.